Tea Party at St. Andrew's, Caversham

Also on June 21st, St. Andrews in Caversham held a Tea Party in their Church Hall in support of Reading Family Aid. There were several stalls as well as tea and cakes.

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Sheila and Laura from Reading Family Aid were there to mingle with the attendees, hand out leaflets and explain about the work that we do.

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Laura, our Secretary and Toy Project Manager, gave a brief talk about what we do. She explained that we do Outings for disadvantaged families throughout the year and hold the massive Toys and Teens Gift Appeal and distribute toys and gifts to children in the Reading area who would otherwise be unlikely to receive anything for Christmas.
​She said​ "Our outings aim to cover children of all ages, so we visit places like Odds Farm Park and Chessington World of Adventures.  We also provide tickets for the pantomime at the Hexagon each Christmas, and have at least one summer trip to the seaside.  This year we expect to spend in the region of £15000 on our outings for more than 700 people."

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She went on to talk about the Toys and Teens Appeal.... "​Although most of what we need for the Appeal is donated, including space and vans, we have found in recent years that we’ve not had enough gifts for older children, age 10-16.  So we have spent some of our donated funds on gifts for those older children.  We also spend money on stationery, including the sacks for delivering the toys, and batteries.  Altogether we anticipate spending about £10000 on the Appeal this year."

She concluded saying ​"So in order to keep putting smiles on faces, we need an income of about £25000 per year.  We are so grateful to St Andrew’s for choosing us as your Charity of the Year and for all that you have been doing for us.  From those 11,500 children in poverty, and from us, thank you!"